Geena & Susan: on women in film, and Brad too

Thelma & Louise were in Toronto last night to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the film at an event in support of the Women’s College Hospital Foundation. I wish I could have been there. Did you go? Did you love it?

They talked about the experience of making the movie, the reaction of people to the movie, and its legacy, if there is one. After all, as Geena noted herself: “The press predicted when this movie came out that: 'Oh my God, now it's been proven that female road movies or female buddy movies or whatever could be very successful and we're going to see a whole stream of them,' and nothing happened. I mean, we really haven't build any momentum since this movie came out."

Why not?

Expained Susan, “The guys who are running things (in Hollywood) have such a lack of imagination. So many bankers ... so many corporate thinkers.”Then Geena “recounted an experience with a group of animators in which one man noted that it’s really hard to create women characters because they are ‘too boring.’ When she asked what he meant, he explained that women had to be perfect and beautiful or ‘the feminists would crack down on us.’ (She) thought at the time, ‘Really, I didn’t know we were so organized.’” (Source)

Did you know they shot the final scene on the final day? It was a good decision by Ridley Scott, the director, and you can tell, because by then, you believed that they believed that they had come to the only place. That vision, well, even the ladies say it had a lot to do with Scott:

"It wasn't trying to be a polemic, it wasn't trying to be anything and (Ridley’s) not a feminist, really, and so it was a turning point for him too. I think it could've been a very small movie if a very serious feminist had made it that didn't put it in this heroic, I mean, that's what he does, he just put us in this huge heroic kind setting and we took care of the human part. So we have to thank him for making it iconic.” – Susan Sarandon

On a lighter note, what of Brad Pitt?

Well, apparently Billy Baldwin was supposed to play JD but ended up dropping out and the rest, well, literally, a star was born. Hollywood Sliding Doors!